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A new discovery every day

A new discovery every day

All the students from SUNY Geneseo and Bloomsburg have been assigned to teams of differing quantity based on the task at hand. Myself and two other Bloomsburg students — Tracy Byrne and Alexa Rose — have been excavating a feature out of a 2x2 meter pit.

One of the greatest things so far has been the scientific advances that have made archaeology much more efficient and exciting.

Jarrod Burks, an associate of Dr. (DeAnne) Wymer’s used a device called a magnetometer, which picks up on magnetic fields given off by potential archaeological finds in the field.

Essentially, this takes out a lot of the guess work of archaeology and we are able to know exactly where to being digging in order to find some Hopewell goods.

Our team, which has been dubbed “team awesome” by some of the teacher’s assistants, have been excavating an unknown feature for the past couple of days.

Archeological Field School

BU anthropology students spent four weeks in Chilicothe, Ohio, excavating a Hopewell habitation site with hope of uncovering another living site of the Mound Builders from 2,000 years ago.

Today (May 26), we finally learned what we had been excavating was most likely an old fire pit used for cooking. It was actually pretty rewarding handling fire cracked rocks that have not been seen since the Hopewell used them!

We’ve been informed that tomorrow there is another potential feature we will be excavating in a new pit we will open up tomorrow. The excitement is constant and the balance of hard work and hard play has made the experience unforgettable already.

I’m already eager to begin digging up more historical objects tomorrow! I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment but in my next update I hope to include more about day to day life at fieldschool in Chilicothe!